Mobility and Identity in Kiran Desai’s The Inheritance of Loss

Abstract

This article explores the interconnections between mobility and identity as portrayed in Kiran Desai’s The Inheritance of Loss (2006). In the past, mobility, especially forced or diasporic, was perceived as enveloping the migrant’s identity with a sense of alienation and nostalgia. In the present, however, it is often viewed as facilitating flexibility and a pluralistic worldview entailing intermingled cultures. While examining the interrelation between mobility and identity, this article evaluates the way in which Desai portrays conflicts and tension between two worlds, inhabited by legal natives and illegal migrants, as well as illegal natives and legal migrants.